UPDATED: Telcoinabox ceases New Zealand play

Telecommunications wholesaler, reseller and franchisor, Telcoinabox, has exited New Zealand after just three years in the country.

The company sold its New Zealand business assets to IP network service provider, Solarix Networks Limited, killed its New Zealand website on the day of sale, and redirected its 0800- customer service number to Solarix Networks.

Telcoinabox chief operating officer, Paul Line, said Telcoinabox did a strategic review of its New Zealand business and decided to stop its play in New Zealand as the telecommunications market there was strained.

“Particularly in the mobile space, we’ve seen an aggressive market within the retail space. That combined with a need to invest more in soft switch and VoIP capabilities in Australia led to the exit,” he said.

According to Line, Solarix bought over the company as it was attracted to Telcoinabox’s presence in the Small office Home office (SoHo) and small business space in New Zealand and saw an opportunity to expand its enterprise and corporate customer base.

“We saw this deal as a timely fit for the business. We had come to a point where we needed to invest in soft-switch infrastructure to take the business to the next level.

“Solarix has a high availability IP network and business-grade VoIP system throughout New Zealand. This, combined with its networking expertise, provides everything our retail service providers need to meet the future demands of SMEs,” he said.

Solarix Networks director, Flemming Rasmussen, mentioned that in addition to its national IP Network and increasing presence in Australia, it saw a good New Zealand fit between its existing WAN-centric focus, and the SoHo and small business focus that Telcoinabox established over the past few years.

Line said the focus of Telcoinabox and Solarix Networks is now to provide a seamless transition and migrate customers across to Solarix’s network with limited, if any, impact on end user services.

Telcoinabox will provide some support services for up to six months to ensure continuity.

As for its New Zealand partners, Line indicated that their transition to become Solarix Networks’ partners is a good opportunity for them to take their businesses from selling legacy products to selling next-generation products.

“One of the requests that we were consistently getting from our New Zealand partners was for a better grade business VoIP system and data access products. Solarix Networks has both of those things in place so they were happy with the news,” he said.

Line also claimed franchisees were told directly of the closure in June and the five New Zealand staff that were employed with Telcoinabox have been offered roles in Solarix Networks.

“One of them has already accepted the role offered and the others have subsequently accepted roles elsewhere with other companies.”

The announcement follows Telcoinabox’s change of focus in the A/NZ market, with former CEO, Damian Kay, mentioning that it was merging its Australia and New Zealand management teams in November last year.

The Telcoinabox Australia brand and business has recently been acquired by Inabox Group, which is currently undergoing an initial public offering (IPO) in Australia.

“We’ve just secured a cornerstone investor in M2 Telecommunications to come on board as part of the IPO and we’re going to be focusing on using the proceeds of the IPO to drive future growth in our Australian business,” Line added.

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